... Even though the DoD would ultimately select senior Air Force officials, US Navy oceanographers and Air Weather Service officers as shuttle payload specialists, MSEs would be the first personnel from an American military programme to go into space. ... One Air Force officer, Maj. ... Jacobson was concerned about shuttle launch delays and wanted the MSEs to understand that his mission, i.e., the launch of national security payloads, dwarfed their mission, flights in space by Air Force personnel. ...